First Impressions
by slythadri
Summary: AU. OOC. A different world. Voldemort was defeated in the First Wizarding war so no return. A little piece of fluff. Dramione.
1. Chapter 1

AN: AU. OOC. A different world. Voldemort was defeated in the First Wizarding War, so no return. Just a little piece of fluff.

"Mom, I have to go, I'll write, I promise," the eleven-year-old boy said, feeling a mix of sadness and mortification caused by what he thought was an excessive display of affection on his mother's part. His grey eyes found his mother's blue ones, and he gave her a small smile. Narcissa quickly regained her composure and let her son go.

Ten years ago, her husband had been sent to Azkaban for supporting the Dark Lord. Narcissa became a widow with a living husband, in charge of the family estate and of their only son, Draco. With her parents dead and her older sister also in Azkaban, she was very lonely. For years she devoted herself to her boy, and the new realities of her life had shaken away her pride and stubbornness. Eventually, she revived her relationship with the only living relatives she had: her sister Andromeda and their cousin, Sirius.

"Come, on, Draco, we have to go. The train will leave soon. Bye aunt Cissy," the always impatient Harry Potter pulled the blonde boy away from his mother. He was thrilled to finally go to Hogwarts, where he was sure he would be sorted into Gryffindor, just like the godfather who raised him and as his parents had been. Draco, on the other hand, was dreading the idea of being sorted into Slytherin on his own. And it upset him that Harry didn't realize that.

They found a compartment on the train and sat. Draco pulled out a book and started reading.

"You're gonna read? Really?" Harry was utterly disappointed. There was a whole train full of kids, and his cousin wanted to read? That blows. But before he could complain, he heard the unmistakable sounds of mischieve and laughter. "The Weasleys are here! Come on, Draco, let's go see what the twins are doing."

"You go, Harry. I want to finish this chapter before we get to school."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"You are just like uncle moony. Sirius said that it was amazing that the Marauders got in as much trouble as they did when moony always had his face buried in a book."

"Someone needs to be the brains of the operation," answered Draco without lifting his gaze from the book. Harry laughed and left the compartment to ego look for fun somewhere else.

Draco continued reading in peace for a while until he heard someone clear her throat.

"Excuse me, have you seen a Toad? A boy called Neville lost one."

Draco looked up at the girl who was the same age as him. She had the craziest mane of hair he had ever seen, but her face was beautiful.

"Toads are out of fashion," was Draco's automatic response.

"What? How can a toad be out of fashion?" the girl asked, but then saw the book in his hand and quickly sat next to him, reading over his shoulder "I just finished that chapter, isn't it exciting?" This girl was all over the place, so Draco closed the book and held it to his chest in case the pretty nutcase decided to grab it and run.

"It is interesting, I don't know if I would call it exciting," he said, hoping that she would tone down a notch. She did.

"I'm sorry," the girl said, blushing. "It's just, everything here is new and exciting, at least for me it is," she said, lowering her eyes.

"You are muggleborn," Draco said, intrigued. He had never met anyone who wasn't from a magical family. Sirius sometimes took Harry to the muggle world, but his mother had never allowed him to go with them. He stared at the girl, trying to see if something about her was different. After a minute, she looked spooked, although, with that hair, it was hard to tell.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, not knowing if she should feel offended.

"Nothing, I just…" he didn't know how to finish the sentence.

"You are trying to see if I am different," she said, haughtily crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"No, no, I just, I don't know, you know," again the words failed him.

The girl relaxed her posture.

"It's ok. I never met a witch or wizard until I turned eleven, and Professor McGonagall came to my house to bring my letter."

"Wicked. I just got a letter via owl. When was your birthday?"

"Last September. It will be again soon, on the 21st," she said, smiling proudly.

"So you will be twelve soon?" he was more intrigued by the minute. The little witch was a muggleborn, and she was older. She knew how the muggle world worked, and she liked to read, she seemed pretty smart. How many things did she see that he didn't know? If he could ask her any question, what would it be? What could she know that he wanted to learn?

"Do you know how to kiss?" the words escaped his mouth before he could stop himself, so he froze. The girl blushed, and her mouth opened and closed a few times before another voice interrupted them

"Who are you?" asked Harry before sitting in front of them and taking a bite of a chocolate frog. A redhead boy chewing a mouthful sat next to him and gave Draco a quick nod of salutation.

The girl stood up before answering.

"I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you," then she looked at Draco and said, "bye now," before running outside the compartment.

"Maybe I'll see you at school?" Draco asked, trying to follow her with his gaze down the corridor.

"Awe, Malfoy, you have a girlfriend?" asked Harry in a mocking voice.

"Shut up, Potter," he said, hiding behind his book.

The sorting ceremony was nervewracking. Professor McGonagall called

"Granger, Hermione."

The girl with the crazy hair walked towards the stool, taking deep breaths and talking to herself. Draco closed his eyes and thought.

Please, be Slytherin, please, be Slytherin.

"Ravenclaw!" the hat shouted.

The girl ran excitedly towards the blue table. Draco felt his heart sink. Harry would go to Gryffindor, and the Weasleys always got there too. He would be alone in Slytherin, surrounded by the people that turned their backs on his mother and him when his father went to prison. He was so deep in his dwellings that almost missed his calling.

"Malfoy, Draco."

He took a deep breath and walked to the stool. He sat there for what felt like a long time. Suddenly, the hat shouted.

"Ravenclaw"

Draco was paralyzed. This was a surprise, and he didn't know how to react. He heard the voice of McGonagall say

"Mr. Malfoy, you have to go to your table. It's Ravenclaw."

Draco's face grew into a huge smile, and he ran to the table, then sat next to Hermione, who enveloped him in an excited hug before quickly realizing what she had done and letting him go, flustered.

"Sorry, I'm just happy to know someone in my house."

Draco smiled and playfully elbowed her.

"Me too."


	2. Chapter 2

AN: this was supposed to be a one-shot, but a second chapter decided to itch my brain until I let it out. It's Fourth year, and in this universe, the Triwizard tournament happens with no complications, so Harry is not a champion. He is just a mirror image of Sirius and James, so Draco sometimes loves him and sometimes wants to kill him. Enjoy!

Hermione was feeling more and more disappointed as the days went by. She was torn between going to the ball with one of the champions, probably the most coveted position any girl would want to be in or going with who she really wanted, but Draco had not asked her. They had talked about the ball, they had dance lessons under the direction of Professor Flitwick, and when paired together, they danced beautifully. Everything pointed towards the two of them going together...except he never asked.

The pair were doing homework at the library, and Hermione was debating in her mind if she should make a tangential comment to extract an answer from Draco or if asking upfront if they were going together would be too blunt and ruin the mood. Because when Viktor Krum asked her, it had been very flattering and romantic, and she didn't want to ruin her chances to have that with the boy she liked.

Her musings were interrupted by that boisterous ball of excitement that was Harry Potter, who sat in front of them and whisper shouted:

"We are safe! I got us dates for the ball! We don't have to ask anyone!"

Draco panicked, looked between Harry, who was grinning, and Hermione, who looked like she just got slapped in the face.

"What are you talking about?" was all he could muster.

Harry explained excitedly.

"Parvati Patil told me that her sister wants to go to the ball with you. She wanted me to ask if you were interested. So I said to her that since they are sisters and we are cousins, maybe we could all go as a group, and she said yes," then Harry looked pensive for a second. "Oh! Do you think she wanted to ask me too? Anyway, it doesn't matter; the point is we have dates, and we didn't even have to ask!"

Draco was petrified, fear bursting inside him. When he did not respond, Harry looked at Hermione and saw that she was now completely pale.

"Hermione? Are you ok? Who are you going with?" then he opened his eyes wide "were you waiting for one of us to ask? Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry! Maybe you can go with Ron? Do you want me to ask him?"

Hermione made a huge effort to not Avada him on the spot, pick up her books, and say haughtily:

"I have a date. And it's the one every girl in school wants." She ran out of the library, leaving the two boys behind. Draco felt like his whole world was sinking as jealousy ballooned dangerously inside his chest. He came back to reality by his clueless cousin's words.

"Well, if she has a date, maybe you can ask your friend Parkinson if she wants to go with Ron? He really likes her; I think she reminds him of his mom, you know, all bossy."

Draco glared at him, then stormed out too.

The night of the ball, Draco waited in the common room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hermione, who had avoided him like the plague since that awful day at the library. But when Padma Patil came down and laced her arm with his, he knew there was no point. The night was doomed anyway. He led his date to the Great Hall, where Harry and Ron were waiting. His cousin seemed indifferent to Parvati, who looked bored. Still, Ronald was grinning like an idiot while Pansy Parkinson, dressed in what looked like a big cloud of cotton candy, was desperately trying to tailor the horrid robes the redhead boy was wearing. Apparently, he was happy the domineering Slytherin girl was touching him, even as she barked at him nonstop. Freaks.

"Where do you think Hermione is?" Asked Harry. "Maybe she was lying about having a date, and now she is just hiding? I feel a bit bad about it. Maybe one of us should have asked her."

Draco was about to wrap his hands about his cousin's neck to strangle him when a fanfare announced that the champions were entering the hall. In front were Fleur Delacour and her besotted date, followed by Cedric Diggory and a radiant Cho Chang, and then came...oh, hell, no. No, no, no. This was not happening. Please, Merlin, let this be a nightmare, someone wake me up, please.

Hermione, dressed in a beautiful gown, her hair perfectly tamed and looking like a goddess, walked in in the arm of Viktor fucking Krum. Draco felt a knot in his throat, and he closed his fists so tightly that his nails hurt his palms.

The ball was a blur. Draco did his duty leading his date for a couple of dances but then sat in a corner to brood. He saw Hermione talking to Krum, saw him kiss her hand, and leave her to fetch some drinks. She then walked towards him, looking both flustered from dancing but also something else that Draco could not read. When she sat next to him, he stood up like a sprung coil and left the Great Hall.

An hour later, Draco was slumped in an armchair in front of the blue fireplace, occasionally wiping the angry tears that managed to escape his efforts to control his rowdy emotions. He felt soft steps coming close and closed his eyes, hoping whoever it was would think he was asleep and leave him alone.

"Draco?" the shaky voice of Hermione made him open his eyes. She had tear tracks in her face. He felt a sick satisfaction at that.

"Where is your date?" he asked dismissively. "Shouldn't you be in some dark alcove kissing an older boy so you can go around bragging tomorrow?" he knew he was hurting her, but he couldn't stop himself.

She shook her head no, fresh tears rolling down her face.

"He tried. And I thought I should try. But it felt wrong. He is nice and handsome, but he is too tall and too old, and he is not you," she finally said.

Draco sat up in the armchair. His brain stopped thinking, and his hands reached for her. She took them and gingerly sat on his lap. They looked at each other while slowly cutting the distance between them. The first touch of their lips was electric, unleashing a storm of emotions that burst all at the same time as they kissed with abandon for so long that some of their housemates had time to come back into the common room, watch them and whisper bets on how long they could keep it going. No one stood there long enough to be the winner, and the morning found the couple curled on the armchair, sleeping in each other's arms.


End file.
